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The Michigan Daily Monay, March 7, 194 . Page 5

Comedy done Sandler style
SNL comedian keeps Hill Auditorium in stitches

By KRISTEN KNUDSEN
Well, what can I say? When I'm
right, I'm right. EVERYTHING
ADAM SANDLER SAYS IS
FUNNY.
From the moment he took the
stage, wearing light blue denim and a

Adam Sandier
Hill Auditorium
March 5, 1994

Giants baseball cap, and bidding a
fond farewell to his flavorful chewing
gum, Sandler kept the audience
laughing. After dedicating an Opera
Man song to U-M, he launched into
hilarious bits about his mother ("She
calls me when I'm sick and says drink
lots of liquids - Oh, liquids - The
last time I drank a solid I choked!
Mom was right!"), horny guys
("Watch your back, girls"), and frat
house bathrooms (sorry, you had to
see that one). With ample usage of the
f-word, the material was often lewd,
but always funny.
After a half hour of stand-up,
Sandlerpicked up his guitar for classic
renditions of all his best songs. The
audience took over the chorus of "Red
Hooded Sweatshirt," and shocked
Sandler by hitting every
"shamalamadingdong." The lighters
went up for a heartfelt performance of
"Lunchlady Land," and rhythmic
clapping spontaneously began during
"The Thanksgiving Song" (until
Sandler abruptly stopped it formaking
him forget the words).
His impersonations of Bono
singing "B-I-N-G-O," Springsteen
and Eddie Vedder forgetting the words
to their songs and Robert Smith finally
breaking down and crying ("like he

wants to do so bad") were exactly on
target and utterly hysterical.
Other highlights included
Sandler's series of short songs about
high school employees - the nurse,
the librarian, the guidance counselor,
the janitor and the weight lifting coach.
The crudeness level built up in these,
all the way to the coach's "I'll be in
the broom closet watching the janitor
whack off to last year's yearbook."
You had to be there.
By the time, then, that Sandler
began "At a Medium Pace," that truly
obscene song told "through a
demented guy's head" (you decide
which head), the audience was not
Throughout, Sandler
was there for his
audience, warning the
older folk to fake like
they were "going to
the bathroom or
something" so they
could miss the
offensive parts.
only receptive, but screaming with
laughter. Throughout, Sandler was
there for his audience, warning the
older folk to fake like they were "going
to the bathroom or something" so
they could miss the offensive parts,
and trying his damndest to speak loud
enough for some deranged nut in the
balcony who just couldn't seem to
hear.
He sprinkled in most of his
characters when given the chance,
from Cajun Man to the Gap girl (After
"Medium Pace" in Gap girl: "Ugh,

the Cajun Man is fucking sick! I'm
mad at him!")
Sandler got funnier and funnier as
the night progressed, the climax being
his complete slam on Jason, the ultra-
cool (yeah, right) high school kid
with the pre-algebra test, who actually
had the nerve to come on stage when
Sandler requested a volunteer. He was
quickly replaced by Bob Gilliam, a
truly cool University student, for a
mother's day song. (Bob, by the way,
was hilarious, dancing along and
singing his lines in the best Sandler
voice he could muster.)
The crowd leapt to their feet when
Sandler left the stage, and didn't stop
clapping and yelling until Sandler
returned for his torchsong, "My Little
Chicken." Everyone laughed, females
screamed "I love you" ("Oh my God!
It's gonna be a good night in Ann
Arbor! Jason, I got us some broads!"
was Sandler's response), and
"Entertainment Tonight" got it all on
tape. And it's a good thing that they
did. The show was superb -
everything that comedy should be. To
anyone who missed it: I hate to say I
told you so.
Recent University graduate Joel
Zimmer rose to the occasion as
opening act for Sandler. Zimmer, who
bears an uncanny resemblance to the
"Encyclopedia Britannica guy," will
soon star in a TV show, "Live and
Kicking," and it's easy to see why.
His impressions of Casey Kasem,
and people who have conversations
with answering machines ("Uh, yeah,
we're going to Rick's tonight, OK?
... OK, so, um, OK ...") were
insightful and, more importantly, very
funny.Zimmer's 15 minuteswastime
well-spent - even if he thinks that
$120 a year for the Daily crossword
puzzle isn't.

EVAN PETRIE/Daily
LSA sophomore Bob Gilliam sings a song with Adam Sandler, who performed to a full house Saturday at Hill.

" Madama Butterfly' flies once again

By MELISSA ROSE BERNARDO
When Giacomo Puccini first
presented his opera "Madama
Butterfly" in Milan in 1904, it was a
fiasco. Not just a bad evening at La

1

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Madama Butterfly
Power Center
March 3, 1994
Scala, but shouts and whistles so loud
that the singers could not hear the
orchestra. Plagued by bad reviews,
Puccini set to revisions of what he
termed "the most heartfelt and more
expressive opera" he ever conceived.
W"I shall win in the end," he vowed.
On May 28, 1904- a mere three
months later -Puccini presented his
revised "Madama Butterfly." Its
success was immediate, and has been
unstoppable ever since. In its ninth
visit to Ann Arbor, the New York
City Opera National Company's
performance proved why "Butterfly"
is the most oft-performed, revered
*and worshipped opera in the world.

The plot is, at its most idealistic, a
juxtaposition of Eastern and Western
cultural values, as portrayed through
the "love story" of an innocent
Japanese geisha and a heartless
American Naval Lieutenant. Cio-Cio-
San, dubbed Butterfly because of her
fragile and delicate nature, is married
to Lieutenant Benjamin Franklin
Pinkerton, a Yankee who must collect
beautiful souvenirs on his journeys.
While in Japan, Butterfly's innocence
moves him so much that he decides to
buy her, and a house - both for a
term of 999 years, with the right to
cancel on one month's notice.
But when Pinkerton (Patrick
Denniston) gets bored with his little
flower of a wife and ships off to
America he leaves Butterfly
(Geraldine McMillan) with Suzuki
(Zheng Cao),her devoted servant. He
also leaves her with a child. And
Butterfly, blinded by love and
entranced with American life, ideals
and religion, refuses other proposals
and waits for her loving husband,
who promised to return to her in the
most beautiful season of the year (and

who has in the meantime taken an
American wife). When Butterfly
discovers that Pinkerton is not
returning, and that he and Kate want
to take her child, she decides that
since she cannot live with dishonor
she must die with honor.
David Belasco's play, from which
Puccini took the story, has provided
an appropriately moving and dramatic
story. Luigi Illica and Giuseppe
Giacosa wrote the gorgeous,
descriptive lyrics. And then Puccini
added the orchestrations. All the tools
for a powerful performance are preset
before the curtain rises, but to bring

that power across, excellent singers
are indispensable. Fortunately, they
were in large number on Thursday
night.
Patrick Denniston gave Pinkerton
some depth (which is no easy task),
reflecting his ambivalence and his
passion for Butterfly with appropriate
vocal dynamics (though a tiny bit
strained sometimes). Geraldine
McMillan soared as Butterfly; her
soprano was carefully measured,
never shrill and always delicate. Her
See BUTTERFLY, Page 8

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